Let's have a quick look at typical Swim Calm profiles: After years of holding SwimCalm classes, I have seen a lot and I have heard a lot.

Students come to a class at very different starting points. There have been several who have never washed their face in the shower. It's too frightening. We can help you. We can work through that together.

Students come in who have a little bit of swimming, face in the water or perhaps the beginnings of a float. Many times the student has been told that he or she can't float because their legs were not up at the surface, perfectly horizontal. Not true, floating is absolutely possible and we can work through that.

Some students come in and able to swim a little in shallow water but will not go near that deep, unnerving water. Like mortar between bricks, we fill up the spaces with the information the student was never told and show them how deep water behaves the same as shallow water.

Students come in all ages, shapes, abilities to swim, levels of fear and we take them all and love working with them. Many have had bad experiences in the water that have remained with them for years. There comes a point at which the students want to purge those bad memories. That's what we do at SwimCalm.

Some students come to us out of pure love for their families. They may have children or grandchildren and are not able to be safe with those little people around the water. It's a selfless act to take on a fear and conquer it so that your children or grandchildren might reap the benefits.

Others want to learn to love the water but don't know how to begin. The thought of being comfortable and swimming in the shallow waters of a Caribbean island is entrancing but it is very intimidating.

Regardless of reason, most students come to us as a last resort, after taking traditional swimming lessons and in some cases, numerous times. We do things differently because at SwimCalm, we know what you have probably never been told about the water and we explain it all to you.

In what other course does the instructor hear from a student "I don't need your help" or "Would you mind moving out of the way, I want to swim" and jump for joy!?

We consider those to be great compliments. Please consider joining us for our final summer class beginning on July 29 and running Monday, Tuesday, Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings. It is a gift to you and to those who love you.

While I have had the privilege of teaching a Beginner course before and acting as an assistant in a couple of other Beginner classes, SwimCalm finally held its own Beginner class under its own banner!

It continues to amaze and thrill me each time the mysteries of the water are unlocked for another fearful swimmer and watching that swimmer (and yes, everyone is a born swimmer) expand, experiment and grow more confident by the moment.

Fear of the water is very, very real and needs a different level and type of teaching attention. Standard swimming lessons are wonderful and reach many people, however, a fearful swimmer is not going to magically overcome this fear and begin swimming across the pool simply by teaching a stroke or to close eyes, place face in the water and blow bubbles.

SwimCalm in Charleston is here to stay. Our next class will be held from January 28- February 1. That allows time to finish the course, travel home and recover before returning to work or activities on Monday morning.

Please join us as we launch a new class of born swimmers and assist in healing fear of the water.

Swim Calm

SwimCalm is dedicated to the high percentage of adults who experience some fear to a profound fear of the water and teaching them about its properties while learning how to feel safe in the water. We help to eliminate the fear that in some cases has followed our students for a lifetime. SwimCalm classes are vastly different from traditional lessons in that classes are small, students control the pace of the classes, no student is ever pressured into attempting any skill and the entire premise is to have fun while demystifying the water. There are no exams and there is no skill checklist. Because of this, MSI has over a 99% success rate with students who attend the course with a money-back guarantee.

A few days ago these students could barely place faces in the water. Now...